Researchers have invented a new kind of material that thinks for itself
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Smart materials will make a huge difference to the product we make, how we use them, and how they interact with us and the environment. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, subscribe to the podcast, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential...
A new DARPA project is experimenting with living factories in space
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Why take stuff with you into space when bacteria and other bugs can make everything you need in situ? Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
This tech-style startup is replacing cotton with clothes made from algae
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Growing cotton is environmentally intensive and has a large environmental footprint – algae doesn’t and it’s just as good. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Second generation of living robots are faster and smarter than their predecessors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our command of biology is improving, and we’re now creating the world’s first programmable living synthetic organisms – AKA living robots. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Last year the world’s first...
Body morphing clothing powered by ancient bacteria helps you exercise harder
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nature has lots of tricks up its proverbial sleeve, and now we can use it to cool your sleeves in new ways … Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. The world is...
Virus based molecular assembler helps researchers build next gen batteries
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nature is fantastic at assembling, well, everything, so scientists are trying to harness nature’s smallest “life forms” to try to create the first molecular assemblers. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from our XPotential Academy, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
New handheld skin printer helps burns victims recover faster and aces trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Serious burns leave scars, but new stem cell technologies and delivery systems could make those injuries a thing of the past. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from our XPotential Academy, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Today, there are all...
Higher Steaks shows off the world’s first lab made bacon and pork bellies
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The future of food doesn’t involve raising animals for slaughter or growing crops in fields … and it’s arriving. Interested in the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Amazon and Ocado are growing crops in vertical farms in warehouses, not open fields, companies are 3D printing beef...
Squids help researchers genetically engineer human cells and turn them invisible
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Squid have a huge number of secret skills, and now thanks to genetic engineering humans could one day have those same skills too. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. People everywhere want superpowers – even though their own...
NASA unveils plans to grow homes on Mars and the Moon out of fungi
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As odd as this might sound it’s actually a very logical idea when you think about it, and NASA aren’t the first to think about growing homes or cities out of plants. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Scientists have created a living material that has the three signs of life
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We often think of materials as static things, but what if they were alive? Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. The line between man made materials and living organisms is getting more blurred as time goes by, and it...
Synthetic biology just got its own special programming language
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to create and control discrete chemical and biological processes and reactions is extremely difficult, this new language aims to simplify it, alot. Synthetic biology is an exciting new field of research that applies engineering principles to biology, and so far it’s being used...
Bioengineers hack biology to turn living tissue into any shape they want
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of the largest ascending mega trends is Synthetic Biology, and as our command and understanding of the natural world increases it will help transform our world in ways you never thought possible. It turns out that many of the complex folded shapes that...
3D printed living inks breakthrough could revolutionise manufacturing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bacteria have some amazing capabilities and soon we’ll be able to harness them to help us 3D print and create new exotic materials and products like never before. This week researchers unveiled a new kind of 3D Printing platform that, rather than using the...
Breakthrough in 3D printing with bacteria could revolutionise global manufacturing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In many ways bacteria are nature’s factories, and with a bit of genetic tweaking they can be seconded to help print revolutionary new drugs, materials and products A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have pioneered an inexpensive method for...
World first as scientists use two new DNA letters to create new “alien” life form
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Life’s DNA has always been coded using just four letters, but now researchers have added two new letters and it opens the door to a whole new world of alien lifeforms never seen before. Ever since life gained a foothold on this fragile rock...
Scientists have created the worlds first artificial neuron
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Neurons play a crucial role in helping ensure our bodies run smoothly, but when they’re damaged, or degrade there can be dire consequences, from dementia to quadriplegia, this breakthrough might let us restore, or even enhance, neurological functions. Researchers have built the world’s first...
Scientists discover a way to 3D print bone on the fly
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Doctors will be able to treat people with broken, or missing bones faster than ever before. If you shatter a bone in the future, a 3D printer and some special ink could be your best medicine. Researchers have created what they call “hyperelastic bone”...
3D printed ovaries help infertile mice give birth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing could give infertile couples new hope. Northwestern University scientists have created a prosthetic ovary using a 3D printer – an implant that allowed mice that had their ovaries surgically removed to bear live young and the results will be presented at the Endocrine Society’s...
Scientists develop “Stem cell fillings” that trigger teeth to repair themselves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Never visit the dentists again and eat all the sweet stuff you like. Marvellous! Scientists in the UK have developed a new Biomaterial that can be inserted into teeth, via a traditional dentists filling, that can repair and regenerate dentin – the hard, bone like material...
